“Kate—”
“No, I know. You thought you had lost me. For months. I fell to pieces in a single night. And you had that for months! I left you to feel that way for so long. And last night, I would have given anything for you to be all right. Because if something happened to you, if you had left me, I would never have been all right again.” Her voice was thick with emotion and the tears were flowing down her cheeks faster than my thumbs could brush them away.
“Katie—” The word broke past the knot in my throat.
“I love you, Hugh. I could not be accused of loving you too quickly or too easily. But my love is deeper for it, I swear it.”
My tears threatened to join hers. “Oh, Kate.” I abandoned my efforts with her tears to cup her jaw, directing her gaze to mine. It was a fruitless effort anyway. They were far too numerous to slow. “It should never have taken nearly losing you to realize you were the love of my life. I will happily spend every day of the rest of that life winning your love. It is an effort well worth undertaking. I love you with everything that I am and everything I hope to be.
“You have already won me, Hugh.” Before I could reply, she pulled me to her, lips slotting together in perfect synchrony. The kiss began as a promise, a vow.
Then she pressed her silk-clad form into my bare chest, and it shifted into something sensual without warning.
I ripped my lips away from her, desperate for air, but then I was presented with miles of tempting neck, shoulder, décolleté and air was the furthest thing from my mind.
“Kate?” The word came in a harsh pants, inches from her lips, as I dragged my gaze from the delicate curves of truly magnificent breasts and creamy flesh to meet her eyes. I was awestruck to find the same burning desire in her expression as my own.
“You want me?” She asked.
“More than anything.”
“Tell me.” The order was delivered half an octave lower than her usual register, landing heavily between us.
The “yes” that followed was more groan than word. “I want to kiss your lips until your fingers fist in my hair—pulling me closer, putting me where you want me.” I brushed two fingers, feather light, across the full lower lip. “Then I want to taste my fill of them, I won’t be done until they’re nearly bruised from my attentions. I wish to slide my own lips down the column of your neck, biting at your shoulder until you arch into me.” Here I trailed my middle finger lightly down the pearly column, addressing it directly. My finger caught in the hollow of her collarbone, and I followed that line to the dip at the base of her throat. Her breath caught, her breasts rising enticingly with the snag. I had to swallow against the tightness forming in my own throat at the thought. “I would run my tongue along this path. Your body has already laid it out, just for me.”
“Hugh…”
“Yes?”
“Do it.”
I could only hope the whimper that escaped me at her direction sounded more masculine to her ears than it did to mine. Regardless, I was hanging by a thread before her command, after… It was all I could do to gentle my approach, to resist the urge to maul her. I used two fingertips on the hinge of her jaw to tilt her full mouth where I wanted it, tugging her lips tenderly to mine.
This was home, nothing had ever felt as right as being in her arms, pressed against her, touching her. I pulled away slightly, swallowing hard against the swell of sentiment. I almost lost this, lost her. I might never have felt her in my arms again. I could have spent the rest of my days longing for her honeyed jasmine scent.
Just as I had said, her hand slid over my shoulders, catching the back of my neck, pulling me back to her. I grabbed her waist with my free hand, appreciating the curve of her hip. This time our lips clashed again, sliding between one another. I tasted her lower lip with my tongue, seeking the entrance I desired.
She granted it willingly, enthusiastically, meeting my intrusion with hers. Desperate groans filled the air, a different music than the tune she played earlier. Her other hand found my shoulder, pulling me closer. She was systematically erasing all space between us until there was nothing but skin and fabric that I wanted to rip off her. The fingers on her jaw slid into the silky waves, wrapping around the back of her neck, gathering her tighter to me still. It was not enough, it would never be enough. Not until we were so close that the months of distance vanished from my memory.
We parted only for the quickest of breaths, only to prevent the further separation that a swoon would cause. My lips were back on hers, bruising in their intensity, the hand in my hair in a fist, pulling me impossibly closer to her.
In the brief moments of sentience between thoughts of her lips and tongue and teeth I couldn’t help but wonder how I could have lived with anything but this desperation. How I could have mistaken acceptance of my attentions for desire. The thought threatened to sour this moment, but I refused to allow it. Not when her luscious breasts were pressed against my chest, pebbled nipples dragging against me with nothing but her scrap of silk between us.
She gave a gentle tug in my hair, away instead of toward. White hot panic shot through me, and for a second, I feared I had ruined everything, pressed her too far, pushed too fast.
Then she pulled her forehead to mine, breath coming in harsh pants mixed with my name. Air, she just needed air. I could allow her that. If I must. It gave me the opportunity to follow the rest of my outlined path, her lips were full and red from my attentions at present anyway. Her jaw was the first temptation I met, and I attacked with precision; pressing open mouthed kisses along the delicate line, tasting the essence of her. And what essence it was, sweet and sensuous like the finest mulled wine. Presented with the curve of her ear, I couldn’t help the gentle, teasing nip on the lobe. She tried to draw me back to her mouth with an accompanying whimper, but I wouldn’t be deterred. I told her my plan, and now I must charge forth.
Pressing first lips then tongue to the hammering pulse just below her jaw was no hardship. Nor were the licks and nips that followed. I had to be careful not to mark this flesh, tender as it was. When I met the dimple of her collarbone, I dipped my tongue in there.
Her fingers were clutching desperately now, holding my head in place while trying to pull my body closer. It wasn’t possible given our height difference, but her efforts were equal parts stirring, amusing, and so, so sweet. Eventually, I reached the delicate swell of her breasts, as promised. It took all of my will to resist her tugging hands, and heaving chest, but this was all that we had discussed. I would go no further without permission.
“Kate…” Her eyelids flitted open, drugged gaze meeting mine. That we had been married nearly a year and I had never seen her like this was a travesty. “What do you want Katie?”
She blinked a few times, trying to clear her thoughts. She swallowed, throat bobbing with the effort, before sitting up a little straighter on her bench. She took one of my hands in her own, bringing my fingers up to the cleft I just abandoned. “I want your lips here.” She directed my fingertips delicately between her velvety breasts, dragging the satin of her nightgown out of the way as she did. “Then you’ll move them here, and you’ll take your time.” I couldn’t hold back a groan as she moved my fingertips to the tight little bud on her breast, dragging them to first one, then the other.
Without her direction, I slid her nipple between my first two fingers, tightening it between them. Her answering whimper was everything—at least until I caught the sight of her thighs rubbing together, attempting to ease her arousal. I bit my lip with the effort of holding back, of waiting for further instruction.
“As long as you want. Forever.” It was a vow. I would happily spend every moment until my dying day lavishing affection on her chest.
